LONDON (AP) — Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who for decades championed Scotland’s independence from the U.K. and nearly accomplished it, has died. He was 69. Salmond, who was a divisive figure in British politics and who as the then leader of the Scottish National Party took Scotland to the brink of […]

Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who sought Scotland’s independence from UK, dies at 69

LONDON (AP) — Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who for decades championed Scotland’s independence from the U.K. and nearly accomplished it, has died. He was 69. Salmond, who was a divisive figure in British politics and who as the then leader of the Scottish National Party took Scotland to the brink of […]

Salmond’s academic and professional background prepared him to become Scotland’s most economically optimistic and visionary politician. At St. Andrew’s University. he double-majored in medieval history, reflecting his love of a Caledonia lost, and economics. In his 20s, he worked as an economist first for Britain’s regional government in Scotland and then at the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he analyzed the country’s most dynamic industry, North Sea oil.

He won a seat in the U.K. Parliament in 1987, and within three years was party leader. He supported Tony Blair’s Labour government in the late 1990s to create a devolved Scottish parliament in Edinburgh, a reform that stopped short of independence, but gave his homeland a taste of self-government for the first time since its 1707 union with England.

Salmond then had a very public forum to push his dream of full independence forward — his government had an array of powers especially on social issues — and managed to convince the government of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to call a referendum. Up until the results were known, it had been considered a close call.

Though the independence campaign lost, Salmond’s SNP managed to capitalize its support and has dominated Scottish politics since. The SNP has been the Edinburgh-based government since, though it suffered a huge setback in this year’s U.K.-wide general election, when it lost a vast majority of the seats it held in the House of Commons to Labour. The next Scottish election is due to take place in 2026.

Demetris Nellas contributed to this report from Athens, Greece.